I-87 North at US-64 Business in Wendell. Right lane drops just north of the interchange. I would convert it into an exit only lane to avoid merge-on accidents. Widening of US-64 from Wendell to Zebulon is currently unfunded and won't happen for a while. So I suggest that this is needed.
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.7988833,-78.4313111,191m/data=!3m1!1e3
Same thing here. Avoid the left-merge!
https://goo.gl/maps/RnH3Keo8M4mz7EKd7
Disagree, having a right lane merge after an exit allows traffic to more safely merge into the flow of traffic at a designated point. Without (at the very least) a designated merge point, traffic ends up merging at random spots, and it can be dangerous for traffic trying to exit having to swerve around them. This is mainly an issue in heavy traffic areas, but it can also encourage through traffic to use more lane space (traffic would likely bail on the exit only lane earlier than if it also merged).
There is nothing wrong with a left merge. Unless the right lane was only just added, the right lanes are usually the busier ones. Having the right lane end kind of encourages unnecessary left lane usage.
Quote from: jakeroot on February 25, 2022, 03:41:21 PM
There is nothing wrong with a left merge. Unless the right lane was only just added, the right lanes are usually the busier ones. Having the right lane end kind of encourages unnecessary left lane usage.
I-40 at US-501 used to have a left merge but it was removed due to safety concerns. the westbound far right lane was converted into an exit only lane.
MoDOT has been doing a ton of this over the past decade where I live. Rather than creating six-lane facility (up until now), Springfield's south side James River Freeway (US-60) now has all of its C/D lanes as exit only lanes between US-65 and MO 13 (with the one exception being the collector lane coming from NB US-65 to WB US-60).
Quote from: tolbs17 on February 25, 2022, 03:43:54 PM
Quote from: jakeroot on February 25, 2022, 03:41:21 PM
There is nothing wrong with a left merge. Unless the right lane was only just added, the right lanes are usually the busier ones. Having the right lane end kind of encourages unnecessary left lane usage.
I-40 at US-501 used to have a left merge but it was removed due to safety concerns. the westbound far right lane was converted into an exit only lane.
I can understand it there, if a lot of traffic exited onto US-501. But I'm not sold on it being appropriate
everywhere, especially if the exit is really quiet.
Quote from: jakeroot on February 25, 2022, 03:41:21 PM
There is nothing wrong with a left merge. Unless the right lane was only just added, the right lanes are usually the busier ones. Having the right lane end kind of encourages unnecessary left lane usage.
Quote from: tolbs17 on February 25, 2022, 03:43:54 PM
I-40 at US-501 used to have a left merge but it was removed due to safety concerns. the westbound far right lane was converted into an exit only lane.
Quote from: jakeroot on February 25, 2022, 03:58:59 PM
I can understand it there, if a lot of traffic exited onto US-501. But I'm not sold on it being appropriate everywhere, especially if the exit is really quiet.
Let me clarify the situation. At Exit 270, I-40 is six lanes wide in Durham County and only four lanes wide in Orange County. The onramp from US-15/501 dumps onto I-40 westbound right at the Orange County line, and there are two left turn lanes onto the onramp from US-15/501 northbound. At rush hour (now starting about 3:15PM eastern), I-40 has jammed up solid at the Orange County line for the past 10 years or so. Aggressive drivers were using both the left lane merge and the right lane merge to pass the traffic in the middle two lanes whenever onramp traffic was light from US-15/501. Now there is a lane drop (exit only) from I-40 westbound onto Exit 270 and just two thru lanes. That makes it harder for onramp traffic to merge, which limits the number of crazies trying to use the onramp as a passing lane. All this works pretty well now. Before the change, traffic would slow down to a crawl by 3:30PM. Now it slows down to about 40MPH or so and the crawl happens sometime after 4PM (not sure when, because I still avoid this section of I-40 so late in the rush hour).
All of this is exacerbated with the fact that the county line begins the long 9-mile climb up Occoneechee Mountain, a moderate upgrade that really needs a truck lane in many areas. Truckers going double-wide from this point west really choke off the lane capacity between Exit 270 and Exit 268 (NC-86).
By the way, the back roads between Durham and Hillsborough are a wonderful scenic drive through the woodlands and consistently takes only 15 minutes. Why anyone that knows the area would tolerate a 15-minute delay or more on I-40 is beyond comprehension.
I think this configuration (https://www.google.com/maps/@33.939197,-117.1603749,3a,75y,90.51h,98.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1srOICdCeDWU2vkjb_USLCQA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en) is what the OP would prefer. I agree with that. I have never seen problems at this exit which gets a fair amount of traffic exiting during rush hour.
There are times when you want the merge to come after the exit. I take this exit (https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8075796,-116.3913887,3a,75y,124.55h,66.09t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNl8dt3tag7cl_MZepYo86A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en) most every time I go to Costco. There's a lot of weaving at this busy exit as just before the exit there's a busy entrance ramp plus a lot of trucks are moving one lane left in anticipation of the loss of the right lane.
Makes sense because the 4 southbound lanes of I-95 (I assume 1 will exit to US-301/i-95 Business) will keep going instead of going to 95 business. No one's really there.
There's also no need for an auxiliary lane at the Murphy Road Interchange. There's nobody at it. Nothing there.
Initial plans.
https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/i-95-widening/Documents/preliminary-design-section-a-map-1.pdf
Revised plans call for the third lane continuing through the interchange and ending beyond there.
https://www.google.com/maps/@35.0812008,-78.7830936,15.37z